A Deputy Minister for Health, Hon. Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye has stressed the government’s commitment to helping medical facilities to always maintain adequate stocks of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
This, he said, is necessary and crucial as frontline health workers are not to be at the forefront of the fight without adequate protection that can greatly endanger their lives.
Dr Okoe Boye made these remarks at a short ceremony to present PPEs to the LEKMA Hospital in the Greater Accra Region to support the facility in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The items presented included 1,000 pieces of nose masks, 50 pieces of examination gloves, 1000 pieces of surgical gloves, several reusable goggles, coveralls, boots and many other medical supplies.
The Deputy Minister stated that the issue of PPEs has become very topical globally and in-country since COVID-19 pandemic started, and it is raising a lot of concerns for especially the frontline health workers.
PPEs, he said, are consumables or disposables and so there must be a plan to always restock and resupply, the reason why it is not accurate to misinterpret a request for the items by health facilities or health workers as non-availability.
“A few weeks earlier, LEKMA Hospital received some PPEs from the Ministry of Health, but since the Ministry wants to overwhelm medical facilities with PPEs, a follow-up presentation is being made again.”.
This, he stressed, showed the government’s commitment in equipping medical facilities and health workers, adding that a host of other facilities and state institutions have also received similar items to facilitate their work during this pandemic.
The Medical Superintendent of the LEKMA Hospital, Dr Akua Gyimah-Asante, thanked the government for the donation.
She said the hospital has seen more than 100 cases where the majority of the cases tested negative after their samples were tested at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR).
By Austin Ofori Addo/ritefmonline.org
